Candidates await word on provisional ballots
BY MICHAEL ACKER
Staff Writer

SOUTH RIVER - The tie between two candidates for a Borough Council seat could be broken by 12 provisional ballots being tallied this week by the county election officials.

Tallies after the Nov. 7 election had Democratic Councilman Anthony Razzano and Republican challenger Michael Trenga in a dead heat with 1,594 votes apiece.

Republican John Trzeciak won a seat outright with 1,752 votes, while longtime Democratic Councilman Richard Reichenbach lost with 1,565 votes.

County election officials have been assessing the provisional ballots to ensure registered voters submitted them with no irregularities. Dolores Anderson, chief clerk for the election division, said yesterday that the results may be released as soon as today.

Jeff Lamm, spokesman for the state Division of Elections, which is a part of the Attorney General's Office, said that once the provisional ballots are tallied, anyone can file an appeal with the judge that handles elections for the county if there are questions about any of the provisional ballots.

"If either candidate has questions about the provisional ballots or the absentee ballots, they can appeal to Superior Court and ask for a recount," Lamm said.

Assuming the ballots are found to be valid, Lamm said that the matter would then come before the judge to make a ruling on the matter.

"If someone is going to challenge the validity of the ballot or several ballots ... they will be asked to show cause as to why the ballot should be disqualified and that appeal comes before a Superior Court judge."

The Borough Council, which currently has a 4-2 ratio of Democrats to Republicans, will either be split 3-3 or have a Republican 4-2 majority come Jan. 1, depending on the outcome.

A recount is possible after the results come in, Trenga said, adding that he does not know if a special election would be held in the event that the provisional ballots result in a tie.

"Let's get the results before we talk about anything other than what the outcome is," Trenga said. "This is a little bit strange. I do not think anybody could have actually foretold that this was going to happen."

Razzano was appointed to the council in September to replace Linda Ejk, who resigned. He, too, was surprised by the vote.

The machine vote came out with a 1,533-vote tie, according to Borough Clerk Albert Seaman. The absentee ballots resulted in a 58-vote tie, and then the emergency ballots resulted in a tie at three votes each.

"If you think about it, you had three separate sets of votes tie," Razzano said. "It is astonishing."

"A nightmare would be if the provisional ballots resulted in a tie and then there was a tie in the run-off," he said.

Editor's note: The identifications of Michael Trenga and John Trzeciak were inadvertently switched in photos that have appeared previously in the Sentinel.

John Trzeciak

Michael Trenga